Printing-machine.



J. A. BOYCE. PRINTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. 3, 1908.

924,310. Patented. June 8, 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

Wnesses. efiwenlr 7;%&7 I v JOHNYAHBOYCE. V I XM A%M 7 4 14;.

J. A. BOYCE.

PRINTING MACHINE. x APPLICATION FILED APR. 3. 1908.

924,310. Patented June 8, 1909.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

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Anna enrich JOHN A. BOYCE, OF SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS.

\ IERINTING-MACHINE Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 8, 1909.

Application filed April 3, 1908. Serial No. e25,058.

To all whom it ma'j concern:

Be it known that I, JoHN A. Boron, a resident of Springfield, in the county of Sangemon and State of Illinois, and a subject of His Majesty Edward VII, King of Great Britain and Ireland, have declared my intention to become a citizenof the United States, as'evidenced by the certificate of the county clerk of Sangamon county, Illinois, now on file in the Patent Oliice.

Be it further known that I have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Printing-Machines, of which the following is such a full, clear, and exact description as wil enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use my said invention.

This invention relates to rotary perfecting machines ada ted to print upon both sides of continuous y moving webs, and equipped with plates having columns circumferential to the plate cylinders.

A prime purpose of this invention is to provide mechanism adapted to produce a page for plate product, in continuous straight run, that is to say; to produce ten )ages from ten plates, twelve pages from two ve plates, fourteen pages from fourteen plates, sixteen pages from sixteen plates, and so on; a complete paper in book form being produced for each iall" revolution. of the plate cylinders with all of the printing couples operating at full speed.

Another purpose of this invention is to provide mechanism adapted to produce a complete paper 1n book form or in sectionsconsistmg of a page for plate product, either with a supplement or supplements, or without supplements, when all of the plate cylinders and all of the impression cylinders are operating at full speed.

ith. these ends in view my invention eonsists in the novel features of construction and combinations of parts shown in the annexed drawirws to which reference is hereb made. 0 e n u 7 and herelnalter particularly described and finally recited m .the claims.

Inasmuch as this invention relates primarily to the relation of the mechanisms, and the mechanisms themselves are of the usual well known constructions except where otherwise s ecified; thedrawings are in the nature of iagrams showing the relation of the mechanisms.

This invention contemplates the use of.

plate cylinders equipped with halfa complement of plates around the cylinders to operate upon a single web, to produce a page for plate roduct in book form,

It a so contemplates the use of plate cylinders equipped with a full complement of plates around the plate cylinders to operate upon a single web to produce papers 1n sec" tions collected, that is to say if book form a papers, not collected, are produced, half a complement of plates aroundthe cylinders may be used, or a full complement of plates around the cylinders may be used, and 1f sections are collected a full complement of plates around the cylinders will be used;

This invention also contemplates the location of the blanket cylinders and the ink drums in such position as not to interfere with the handling of plates in putting the plates on or taking them oil from the plate cylinders and the adjusting of the blanket cylinders relative to the plate cylin'ders as hereinafter set forth to admit of operation with plate cylinders equipped with half a complement of plates or plate cylinders equipped with a full complement of plates, as may be preferred.

In this application no claim is made to the means for actuating the various cylinders and rollers ol' the machine and it is to "be understood that they may be actuated by any suitable system of gears. The plate cylinders, blanket cylinders and ink drums may beef any suitable width, and of any approved construction.

In order that this invention may be clearly understood it necessary to briclly set forth the prior state of the art as follows: Print-- ingmaehines equipped with plate cylinders having plates cireui'nlmential to the plate cylinders are of two classes 'which for convenienco in description I will designate as class A and B, respectively. In class A machines a number of webs are brought together over a former and the first fold is made on the former and the cutting and second folder devices are situated below the former. In such a machine it is necessary to have two plates'ol the same matter lying end to end around the plate cylinders, in order to get a complete paper in book form for one hall turn of the printing couples. It is obvious therefore that such a machine must have twice as nlany stereotype plates as there are pages in a book' ferm paper, in order to get a high speed. Class "B machines also are e nipped with formers for making the first to d. The main sheets from a web or webs running from one or more decks of the machine are cut and collected before the first fold is made on the former and if there is a twoa e supplement sheet inserted between t cleaves, the supplement deck of the press must run at half speed; four stereotype plates will therefore be required to produce the two .page supplement sheet. It will therefore be seen that in a class B machine operating as described, twelve plates are required to produce a ten page pa er in book form; and sixteen plates to pro uce a fourteen page paper in book form; and so on. A class B machine equipped to produce tenpage papers in book form must collect the cut sheets before making the first fold, and must use twelve plates, of which eight are for main pages and four are for supplement pages; and the supplement plate cylinders must run at half s eed in order that the main sheets may be co ected and the supplements inserted with the collected sheets. lecting of the main sheets retards the operation to such extent that if collecting is done only half as many papers per hour can be produced as would be produced if the machine were running on book-form papers without supplements; for example, if the maximum product of a class B machine operating on book-form papers without su plements (say eight-page papers) is twenty t rousand papers per hour, its product when operating to produce papers comprising collected mainsheets, with inserted su plements (say ten-pa e papers) will be on y half of the origina product that is to say, ten thousand papers per hour. My machine equipped to produce a ten-page paper will operate all of the cylinders at full speed and will have only ten plates asagainst the twelve plates of the class B machine. It is obvious therefore that my machine of a given maximum fullspeed capacity when operating on papers with supplements will produce twice the number of papers per hour, from a less number of plates, that a class-B machine operating on the same kind of papers can produce v in the same time. Referring to the drawings in which similar reference letters and characters designate like parts in the several views; Figure 1 is a diagram showing in elevationplate cylinders, blanketcylinders, etc., arranged to operate u on a single web with half a complement of p ates around the plate cylinders. Fig. 2 is a similar diagram showing the, same mechanis'ms adjusted to operate upon a single web with a full-complement of plates around the plate cylinders. Fig. 3 is a diagram showing'in top plan the relation of the plate cylinders, blanketnylinders, ink-drums, web 5 adjusters, angle bars an d fo rm er. The int;

expose underlying parts.

This 001-.

ing rollers, 'form rollers and other minor details are omitted from this view and some of the cylinders are shown as broken away to This view also shows the preferable arrangement of a half complement of plates on the plate cylinders. Fig. 4 is an enlarged isometric projection of one of the adjusting devices used for adjustin the position of the blanket cylinders re ative to the plate cylinders and for controlling the pressure on the plate /cylinders and Fig. 5 is an enlarged partialisometric projection of the web ad 'ustmg devices.

Revolublc plate cylinders P and P of usual construction are of diameter suitable to 110- so commodate two lates end to end extending around the cylin er and may be any suitable number of plates in width.

v The revoluble blanket cylinders, B, B, B B and therevoluble ink drums I, I, I and 1 are all of the usual construction and are half the diameter of a plate cylinder but may be of different diameter withoutdeparture from my invention.

The ink drums I, I, I and I are solocated relative to the plate cylinders that ink is applied at every half revolution of the plate cylinder and it is therefore unnecessan'h to change the inking devices either when" there is a half complement of plates or a full complement of plates in use 'on the plate cylinders.

Bevoluble distributing rollers (Z, run in contact with the ink drums and distribute the ink in the usual well known manner and revoluble form rollers f of the usual construction apply the ink on the face of the plates in the usual well known manner. A paper roll R, mountedin the usual manner su plies the web to be operated upon.

n case the platecylniders are equipped with a half complement of lates I prefer a zigzag arrangement of the p ates on the cylinder, such as is shown in Fig. 3.

The plates being arranged as described, plates 1, 3 and 5 will print upon the upper surface of the web running on the cylinder B during the first half revolution of the plate cylinder; and will print upon the upper side of the same web running upon the cylinder B during the second half of the revolution of the cylinder P; and the plates 10 and 8, will print upon the u per surface 'of the web running on the cylinder B during the second half of the revolution of the cylinder P and the same plates will print upon the upper surface of the same web running 'upon the blanket cylinder B about the same time that the plates 1, 3 and 5 are printing upon the upper surface of the web running 011 the cylinder B. Or the plates may be arranged in a straight row side by side across the plate cylinder and occupying one half the circumference of each plate cylinder; the lates of pages 1, l0, 3, 8 and 5 being placed on 0116 r semicircumference of the cylinder P and the plates of pages 2, 9, 4, 7 and 6 being placed on one semi-circumference of the cylinder P.

A practical advantage of placing the plates zig-zag on the cylinders, as shown in Fig. 3, is that there is always plate surface in contact with both of the im ression c linders B and B, and the cylin ers there ore run more evenly than they would run if the plates were at any time in contact with only one of the im ression cylinders.

n order that the blanket cylinders may run in contact with the plate cylinders when the blanket cylinders serve as impression.

cylinders and may run free from the plate cylinders when the blanket cylinders are nZJt in use as impression cylinders, adjusting devices for adjusting the blanket cylinders relative to the plate cylinders are provided. There is an adjusting device at each end of each blanket cylinder and all of said adjusting devices are exactly alike; so a description of onewill suflice for all. I will now describe one of said adjusting devices.

A box A 'is fixed'on the main frame of the printing machine. A block A is slidable 1n suitablev guides in the box A. The shaft 1) of the blanketcylinder B turns in a suitable bearing in the block A. The block A. has a central female screw it in which the screw' threaded part (1 of the bolt D fits. The bolt and d and a square art (1.

D extends through'a fixed standard A on the main frame and has screw threaded} parts (1 A collar d is secured on the bolt A nut d and a jam nut d fit on the part (1 and a jam nut d fits on the part d. A forked key E straddles the bolt D and fits between the collar (1 and the upright A A set screw 6 extends through the ey -E and bears against the upright A and serves tokeep the key in osition.

If it be desired to move t e block A I quickly to bring the cylinder B into contact with. the plate cylinder, or tomove it away from the plate cylinder, the set screw e will be loosened and the key E will be withdrawn and the bolt D will he slid inward or outward to slide the block A so as to bring'the circumference of the cylinder B into contact with the circumference of the plate cylinder, or to move it away from the plate cylinder as I the case may be; and when the blanket cylinder is properly adjusted the key 'E may be placed on either side of the upright A and secured to hold the block A in the position in which it may be set.

If it be desired to increase the pressure of the blanket cylinder on the plate cylinder the nut d will be loosened and the bolt D will be turned by any suitable instrument fitting on the squared partd to cause the screw part (1 to move inward or outward-in the female screw a to place the block osition to produce the desired pressure of the blanket-cyl inder against the plate cylinder and the nut dling of the plates.

vcylindcrsw ill register with each other.

shaft G.

d will then be tightened to secure the parts in the position in which they are set. From the foregoing it will be seen that the .box A may by the instrumentality of the key or wedge E be quickly moved to bring the blanket cylinder in contact with the late cylinder or to place it out of contact wit the plate cylinder and may by turning the bolt, be nicely adjusted to regulate the pressure of the blanket cylinder against the plate cylinder. 4 i p i In practice the plate cylinders P and P will be so located that pages printed by the cylinder P cooperating with theblanket cylinder B will register with pages printed by the cylinder P cooperating with the blanket cylinder B; l

'It will be observed that the blanket cylinders B and B are both on one side of the diameter X of the Iplate cylinder P; and the blanket cylinders and B are both on one side of the diameter Y of the plate cylinder. P; it isfobvious therefore that access to one half ofeach plate cylinder is unobstructed and there is nothing to interfere with the handling of the lates. This feature is-of great practical a vantage.

I am aware that duplicate blanket cylin-' ders and duplicate inking devices have been used in cooperation with a single plate cylinder equipped with a full complement of plates, but the parts have hitherto been so arranged that either the blanket cylinders or the inking devices interfere with the han- In my machine this objection is overcome.

As has already been stated the cylindersB and B are so situated that the pages printed by'said cylinders cooperating with the plate In order to attain perfect registration of the pages impressed upon the web running upon the cylinders Band B in cooperation with the cylinders P and P respectively, it is necessary to adjust the Web running between said cylinders B andB to cause the proper locating of the pages on theweb and to compensate for stretching or accidental moving of the web which might throw the pages out of registry, and it is also necessary to so adjust the web that the pages impressed upon the cylinder B will be upon the same side of the web and in line with the pages impressed upon the cylinder 13-". I will now describe the mechanism for effecting these adjustments of the web.

A fixed shaft G extends across the machine. Arms G and G are mounted on the Rollers g are mounted to turn in bearings on the arms and similar rollers g are .mounted to turn in bearings on the arm G. Set screws .G connect the arms G with the shaft G and similar setscrews G connect the arms G with the shaft G. By loosening the set screws Gdthe armsmaypeturned on the shaft to raise or lower the roller g and by loosening the set screws G the armsG may be turned on the shaft to raise or lower the roller g.

When the rollers g and g are placed in the desired position the set screws G and G will be screwed down to secure the arms on the shaft and hold the arms to support the rollers in the position inwhich they are set.

When operating upon a single web with a half comp ement of plates around the plate cylinders (Figs. 1 and 3) the operation will be as follows: The first impression will be made upon the cylinder B, the second impression will be made on the cylinder B the third impression will be made on the cylinder-B5,.- and the fourth impression will be made on the cylinder B. From the foregoing it will be seen that the first and fourth ,im ressions will be on the up er side of the we the second impression wi 1 be on the re- -ver se side of the web and will back the first impression; and the third im ression will be on the reverse side of the we and will back the fourth impression. lhe web from the roll R will run around the cylinder B and be,-

' tween the cylinders Band B and the first impression will be made on the upper surface of the web. After the cylinder P-when operating with half a complement of plates,.has printed upon the upper surface of the web running on the cylinder B the run of the web must be timed so that when the art of the web which is to be printed upon the cylinder B arrives in position for the fourth impression to be made a blank space must be presented, otherwise the impression upon the cylinder B would overlap the im ression made by the cylinder B. After the rst impression has been made the web will be led under the roller g, over the roller g, under f the adjusting roller 9 and under the roller surface 0 the web in to adjust thepages to be impressed upon the cylindbr B to the pages reviously impressed on the cylinder B, and will then run to the blanket cylinder B and between the cylinders P and B and the second impres-' sion will be made on the under or reverse side of the web; the web will then run around the rollers g", g g and g ,to adjust the pages to'be impressed on the cylinder B to the gages previously impressed on the cylinder ,and thence to the cylinder B and between the cylinders P and B and the third impression will be made on the under or reverse side of the web and the web will then run from the cylinder B to the cylinder B and between the cylinders P and B and the fourth im ression will be made on the upper line with the first impression.

In operating with a fullcomplement of lates around the cylinders P and P web rom the roll R (Fig. 2) will run over the rolland the run of the web is as shown in Fig. 2, i the cylinders B and B will be in d suse and will be moved outward, as shown so as not to contact with the cylinders P and. P. The web printed on both sides will then be led to the associatinu and. first-fold er device. i

If the machine is operating with a half complement of plates around. the plate cylinders the roduct will be a pagofor plate prod-- uct in ook form; and if the machine is operating with a full complement of plates around the cylinders all the plat will be original plates and the product, whether in. book form or in sections collected, will still be a page for late product. In every case the number of equal to the number of plates of the printing cou les.

he means for slit-ting the WOl),'l;u1I1iIlj and associating the web members and fold ing longitudinally the two plate wide web members will now be described. a A revoluble roller ll extends across the machine above the impression cylinder B". A horizontal revoluble shaft l: is parallel to the roller H. Circular slitter blades 7&- are accured on the shaft K and slit the web longitudinally to divide it into three web members two of which are two plates wide and. one of which is one plate wide. Fixed horizontal. turner bars M of the usual construction above and inclined at an angle of 45 deg! relative to the cylinder B. A. former N of usual construction is located in position to re ceive web members running on the turner bars. member is turned around one of the turns! bars M. and runs either between the m ain web members or next to the surface of one side of the former N. The two page-wide web pages of the product will be The one page-wide supplement web 1,:

members are turned around the other turner i 1 1 bars, respectively, and run to the former and are folded lengthwise by the former. The supplement web member being next to the surface of the former or between the twoplate-wide web-members as the case may be, is situated. between the leaves of one of the two page-wide we b members. After the two page-wide web members have been run over the former and folded lengthwise described the longitudinally folded web mcmbers will be cut into sheets by cutter mechanisms below the former, which are not part of the present invention and are therefore not shown or described, and said out sheets li'ili 65 ers g and g to the blanket cylinder B and l'will be folded by folder mechanisms which 1150 are not part of this invention and therefore are not shown or described.

Having fully described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In. a printing machine, the combination of a primary plate cylinder, impression cylinders cooperating with and separately adjustable relative to said primary plate cylinder, 'means for inking said primary plate cylinder, a secondary plate cylinder, impression cylinders cooperative with and separately adjustable relative to said secondary plate cylinder, means for inking said secondary plate cylinder, means for leading the web to receive the first impression from one of said plate cylinders, the next two impressions from the other plate cylinder and the final impression from said first-named plate cylinder, means for slitting the web to form onepage-wide and two ')age-wide web-memhers, means for associating said web-mom'- bers in parallel, and means for folding longitudinally and centrally said two-page-wide web-members.

2. Means effective to print upon a continuously moving web, a page-for-plate product by means of plate cylinders equipped with a lialfcomplement of plates extending halfway around the plate cylinders, and equally effective to print by means of the same plate cylinders equipped with a full complement of plates extending entirely around the plate cylinders, a page-for-plate product having double the number of pages of said first named product; comprising a revoluble plate cylinder, a first impression cylinder and a fourth impression cylinder, cooperative with andadjustable relative to said plate cylinder, a complemental plate cylinder in operative relation to said iirstnamed plate cylinder, a second impression cylinder and a third impression cylinder cooperative with and adjustablc relative to said complemental plate cylinder, means for inking said plate cylinders and means for leading said Web so that one side of the web will be perfected while running on the third impression cylinder and the other side of the same web will be perfected while running on the fourth impression cylinder, in case a half-complement of plates extending half-way around the plate cylinders is used and likewise in. case'a full complement of plates extending entirely 1 around the plate cylinders is used.

3. Means efiective to produce from a continuously moving plural-plate-wide web, a paged'or-plate product including supplement, by means of plate cylinders equipped with a hall complement of plates extending half-way around said plate cylinders and equally effective to produce by means of the same plate cylinders equipped with a full complement of plates extending entirely ailound said plate cylinders, a-page-for-plate product having double the number of pages of said first named product; comprising a revoluble plate cylinder, a first and fourth impression cylinder cooperative with and adjustable relative to said plate cylinder, a complemental plate cylinder inoperative relation to said first named plate cylinder, ase cond impression cylinder and a third impression cylinder cooperative with and adjustable relative to said complemental plate cylinder, means for inking said plate cylinders, means for leading said web so that one side of said web will be perfected while running on the third impression cylinder and'the other side of the same web will be perfected while running on the fourth impression cylindcr, in case a half-complement of plates ex tending half-way around the plate cylinders is used and likewise in case a full complement of plates extending entirely around the plate cylinders is used, means for dividing said continuously moving web into a one-platewide and a two-plate-wide web-member and effecting a quarter turn thereof to associate in parallel said one-plate-wide and twolate wide web-members, and means for fo ding longitudinally said two-plate-wide Web-member.

4. Means effective to produce from a con-' tinuously moving web' a page-for-plate prodnot by means of plate cylinders equip ed with a half-complement of plates extending half-way. around the plate cylinders, and equally effective to produce by means of the same plate cylinders equipped with a full complement of plates extending entirely around the plate cylinders a page-for-plate product having double the number of pages of said first named product; comprising a revoluble plate cylinder, a first and fourth impression cylinder cooperative with and adjustable relative to said plate cylinder, a complemental plate cylinder in operative relation to said first named plate cylinder, a second impression. cylinder and a third impression cylinder cooperative with and adjustable relative to said complemental plate cylinder, means for inking said plate cyl1nders, means for leading said continuousl moving Web so that one side of the web will be perfected while running on the third impression cylinder, and the other side ofthe same web will be perfected while running on the fourth impression cylinder, in case a half complement of plates extending half-way around the plate cylinders is used, and likewise in case a full complement of plates extending entirely around the plate cylinders is used, means for effecting a quarter turn of said continuously moving web, and means for folding longitudinally said continuously moving web.

5. The combination of a revoluble plate cylinder, a revoluble impression cylinder mounted in slidablc supports and adapted to cooperate with said plate cylinder, screws slidable longitudinally in stationary su ports and respectively connected with the s idable SlPPOI'tS of said impression cylinder and a apted to be turned to move said slidable sup orts slightly for accurate adjustment of sai impression cylinder, and keys adapted to engage with said screws'respectively, to limit the sliding of said screws in one direction to bring said impression cylinder into use and adapted to engage with the'same screws to limit the sliding of said screws in the opposite direction to place said impression cylinder in dis-use.

6. In a printing machine the combination of two parallel revoluble plate cylinders effectiVe to print on both sides of a single web and adapted to accommodate a half complement of plates extending half-way around said plate cylinders respectively, or a full complement of plates extending entirely around said plate cylinders resp'ectivel four impression cylinders cooperating witi said plate cylinders to perfect a continuously moving web in case a halt complement of plates is used'on said platecylinders; and means for placing out of commission two of said impression cylinders and leaving two of said impression cylinders in commission and cooperating with said plate cylinders to perfee-ta continuously moving web in case a full complement of plates is used on said plate cylinders. I

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name at Springfield, Illinois, this 30th day of March, 190 7 JOHN A. BOYCE.

ld itness'es W. K. HALE, JESSIE J. NETTLETON 

